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No Need to Run to the Store: Make your Own Yogurt

I made yogurt in the crockpot and I am here to tell you how easy it is to make your own yogurt.

You will need:

Crockpot and milk used to make yogurt

1/2 gallon of milk (I used Borden’s Whole Milk, but you can use any brand)

Oikos brand Greek style yogurt

1/2 cup of plain yogurt, any brand (I used Oikos Greek style yogurt since I like Greek style yogurt and it was on sale for $1 at Walmart, but you don’t have to)

slow cooker, measuring cup

2 towels

1. Pour the milk into the slow cooker and set on low for 2 1/2 hours. I did this step around 4 in the afternoon.

Milk warming in the crockpot

2. Unplug the crockpot and leave it alone for 3 hours. Around 6:30 pm, it was time to unplug the crockpot. Do not remove the lid, just leave it alone.

3. After the 3 hours is up (around 9:30 p.m. when I did it), take 1 cup of milk out of the crockpot and mix in a bowl with half a cup of plain yogurt. Mix well with a wire whisk. My wire whisk was missing so I just mixed it well with a fork. Pour the milk/yogurt mixture back into the crockpot and mix well with the rest of the milk. Place the lid back on. I set some aluminum foil on top before placing the cover (optional).

4. Wrap the entire crockpot with 2 large towels. As you can see in the photo, I used a couple of bath towels.

Crockpot wrapped in two bath towels

5. Leave it alone for 8-12 hours. I checked mine at around 9 am the next morning. All the mixture had turned into yogurt.

Yogurt made in a crockpot

I mixed it around a bit and transferred the yogurt into smaller containers.

Homemade yogurt transferred to smaller containers

6. Refrigerate for 24 hours and it is ready. I actually cheated and tasted it after 8 hours and it tasted good, just a bit watery. After 24 hours it was a great consistency and had a pleasant taste. It was so good, I only added about a teaspoon of honey for flavor. I let the family taste it and they liked it.

Homemade yogurt with honey

All in all, the yogurt in a crockpot was a success. The flavor is great, I don’t think I will go back to store bought yogurt, except to resupply on the plain yogurt if I run out. For about $3.50, you get about $10-$12 worth of good yogurt. If you like yogurt, try this yourself; it is amazingly easy!

6 thoughts on “No Need to Run to the Store: Make your Own Yogurt”

Before you eat any of your new batch of homemade yogurt put 1/2 cup of it into the freezer to use for you next batch. Just make sure to thaw it well in the refrigerator first before using. Do this each time and you won’t have to run out to get more starter.

Hi Jessica, I checked out the link. The article reinforced my thoughts that we have had a lot more disasters and extreme weather in the last year or so, than we’ve experienced in decades. Good topic for a post. Thanks for sharing!